Season 23, Episode 8 Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women

First Aired: December 28, 2009

An inventive biography of "Little Women" author Louisa May Alcott that mixes documentary, drama and animation, with the dialogue borrowed from writings and firsthand accounts. "I don't enjoy writing moral pap for the young. I do it because it pays well," Alcott (Elizabeth Marvel) admits. Another avenue that paid: lurid pulp fiction, which she published under a pseudonym. The bio also delves into "Little Women," her family's progressive ways and family friends Emerson and Thoreau.